DHAKA, Bangladesh: Thousands of security officials are patrolling the streets of Bangladesh's capital as a war crimes tribunal is set to deliver a verdict against a former Islamic party leader.

Ghulam Azam was Jamaat-e-Islami party chief of Pakistan's eastern wing in 1971 when Bangladesh became independent through a bloody war. Azam and his party are blamed for forming citizens' brigade to commit genocide and other serious crimes against the pro-independence fighters during the war.

The call for the shutdown came Sunday after the tribunal announced when it would deliver the verdict Monday.

Azam is expected to get death penalty. Bangladesh says Pakistani army killed three million people with the assistance of local collaborators during the war.

Authorities deny Jamaat's claim that the trial is politically-motivated.